Daniel Schorr Quotes

I don't think that any government has a right to subvert the truth or to cover up the truth, and all I see WikiLeaks doing is exposing the truth.

The people have the right to know what their Agents are doing or have done, and it should not be in the option of the Legislature to conceal their proceedings.

It is hard to imagine having a government more secretive than the United States. Virtually everything that government does, of any significance, is conducted behind an extreme wall of secrecy. The very few leaks that we’ve had over the last decade are basically the only ways that we’ve had to learn what our government is doing.

WikiLeaks is what happens when the entire U.S. government is forced to go through a full-body scanner.

Why does the White House sometimes seem so determined to close the door on the people's right to know what their government is doing?

Government ought to be all outside and no inside [for] corruption thrives in secret places [and] it [is] a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety.

It’s hard to sometimes get information out of the government. It’s really hard. You can’t do it without asking tough questions.

Can the public business be thus transacted and in secret?

I believe that the American People have a right to know what was done in their name..

We've got to break through the wall of secrecy. It's America's fate.

The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.

Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix.

Not only do we have a right to know, we have a duty to know what our Government is doing in our name. If there's a criticism to be made today, it's that the press isn't doing enough to put the pressure on the government to provide information.

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

The U.K. government has a responsibility to keep secrets in some circumstances. It also has a responsibility not to abuse that power for other purposes.

Government must be a transparent garment which tightly clings to the people's body.

Any unveiling is also veiling. No matter how transparent our governments want to be, governments will be selectively transparent.

I released 34 years of tax returns and 300,000 e-mails in my government record. To get the information from Hillary Clinton, you need to get a subpoena from the FBI.

The job of a journalist is to find out stuff. The job of the government - sometimes - is to keep stuff secret. There's a natural tension there.

There should be at least one leak like the Pentagon Papers every year.

The fact is that when it comes to judgment as to what should be secret and what should not be secret, Julian Assange's judgment has been pretty good so far.

The purpose of sealing the records was not to conceal them or to conceal the facts from the American people.

All officers of the Intelligence Community, and especially its most senior officer, must conduct themselves in a manner that earns and retains the public trust. The American people are uncomfortable with government activities that do not take place in the open, subject to public scrutiny and review.

Groups that advocate open government have argued that it's vital to know the names of White House visitors, who may have an outsized influence on policy matters.

The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to bare the secrets of government and inform the people.